MOZILLA’S APPROACH TO D.C. — The Firefox-maker was a key part of the anti-SOPA backlash and has been a top name in grassroots efforts to curb NSA surveillance, but it doesn’t have any registered lobbyists or a PAC — and it’s likely to stay that way, general counsel Harvey Anderson tells MT. “Our focus is in places where we can make incremental difference. We’re not an advocacy organization,” he said. “There are lots of organizations that live and breathe within this community and this ecosystem that are far more effective than we are, but there are certain times and places where we can bridge the gap, and the SOPA piece was a good example.”

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Anderson, who also said the NSA revelations spurred by Edward Snowden have created a troublesome trust divide between Internet users and the government, added that Mozilla isn’t going to compete with big lobbying groups. It cares about policy, but would rather act in a grassroots manner. “I see us looking for more issues where we can make a difference...The way we look at it is, ‘how much does something threaten the open web?’” he said. “What’s going all in for us is talking to users about an issue. Because users will then talk to their representatives.”

SCHIFF INTRODUCING BILL TO INSTALL FISA PUBLIC ADVOCATE – Rep. Adam Schiff is set to announce today that he’s dropping a bill to allow non-governmental attorneys to appear before the FISA court as “public interest advocates” in significant constitutional cases and reviews of major surveillance programs. Details will come later today, but the bill would allow the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board to appoint a pool of independent lawyers with experience in privacy and Fourth Amendment cases. Those attorneys would then be available for appointment by FISC judges in cases involving novel constitutional issues or with broad privacy implications. The bill would also create a pool of cleared independent technical experts that could advise judges on technological issues. Sen. Richard Blumenthal has introduced a measure on the same topic in the Senate.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR HELIUM — Tech companies dreading the so-called helium cliff took a breath Thursday afternoon with the Senate’s passage of a bill to keep the nation’s reserves open for business — but they’re still not out of the woods. The Senate bill doesn’t match with the one the House passed earlier this year, and while the issues aren’t huge, the two chambers still need to agree.

Tech sources met with top GOP aides on the subject Thursday afternoon and said leadership is working to figure out if they have the votes to pass the Senate version, which has earned a bit of rebuke from fiscal hawks for not completely funneling helium sales into deficit reduction. If they do have the numbers (and the original helium bill, by the way, passed basically unanimously) that could set up a vote for next week, though the CR still complicates the calendar. Other options would be to pass a temporary extension and figure out the details later, or appoint conferees to address the differences — but that would also be a tight fit time-wise. Aides to Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Eric Cantor didn’t get back to MT.

GOOD FRIDAY MORNING and welcome to Morning Tech, where the first person to send us a good pun that mixes FCC nominee Mike O’Rielly with The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” gets a gold star. Submissions welcome at abyers@politico.com and @ byersalex, We’ll also take tech tips and news bites as well. Catch the rest of the team’s contact info after speed read.

ZUCK STEERS CLEAR OF NSA TALK ON HILL — Jessica has the story: “Mark Zuckerberg did not appear to bring his California rant against government snooping to Washington...Just last week in San Francisco, Zuckerberg accused the government of foiling its initial response to NSA surveillance efforts. But the tech chief’s conversations Wednesday and Thursday took place with lawmakers more connected to immigration and online privacy than intelligence. And while immigration did not represent his sole focus, it became a dominant theme during his Capitol tour — and indicated priorities that eclipse NSA.” MORE, for Pros:http://politico.pro/18ePcRe

PK: INTELLECTUAL VENTURES AS HARVEY DENT — The controversial patent firm fits the mold of Two-Face, the Batman character, Public Knowledge contends in a new blog post: Intellectual Ventures is trying to position itself as a firm that understands the value of ideas, when it really is just trying to prey on businesses and keep innovation deadlocked, author Bartees Cox writes. “The value of an invention does not come from merely coming up with an invention. And it definitely doesn’t come from writing that idea in vague and technical language to file in the impenetrable cabinets of the Patent Office,” he writes. “The value comes from using the invention.” The company’s approach to patents’ role in society is exactly the reason lawmakers need to legislate new patent reforms, he adds. “We need laws that defend small businesses from patent trolls like Intellectual Ventures, and uphold the value of innovation and productive use of patents, which ultimately puts new products and services into the hands of consumers.” Read the rest here: http://bit.ly/16cTQTO

LEVIN FLOATS NEW BILL AIMED AT TAX AVOIDERS — The head of the Senate’s subcommittee on investigations dropped a new measure Thursday that would help beef up the Treasury Department’s arsenal in fighting companies that hide profits overseas. Levin, who’s targeted corporate tax offenders for years, has kept a close eye on tech firms like Apple, Microsoft, HP and Google. At a policy briefing Thursday, he even used Apple and Microsoft as examples of companies that use some of the tactics the bill targets. The measure would impose a $1 million fine per violation for firms that don’t disclose offshore holdings. It’s unlikely to move on its own, but could be incorporated into work on comprehensive tax reform that’s being undertaken by Sen. Max Baucus and Rep. Dave Camp.

TECHNET BRINGS ON NEW STATE POLICY LEADER — The tech group has hired John Doherty, formerly vice president of state government affairs for UnitedHealth Group, to be the organization’s new vice president of state policy and politics and as its general counsel. State politics are becoming increasingly relevant for tech interests, and Doherty, who will be based in Sacramento, has worked as chief of staff for the state assembly majority leader there. He takes over a role that was held by Jim Hawley, who left the organization this summer to join Dewey Square Group in Sacramento. TechNet is also in the process of looking for a new chief executive and president after the departure of Rey Ramsey last spring.

RSA: STOP USING NSA-LINKED ALGORITHM — WIRED’s Kim Zetter: “Amidst all of the confusion and concern over an encryption algorithm that may contain an NSA backdoor, RSA Security released an advisory to developer customers today noting that the algorithm is the default in one of its toolkits and strongly advises them to stop using the algorithm...The company is the first to go public with such an announcement in the wake of revelations by the New York Times that the NSA may have inserted an intentional weakness in the algorithm — known as Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generation (or Dual EC DRBG) — and then used its influence to get the algorithm added to a national standard issued by the National Institute of Standards and Technology...RSA is currently doing an internal review of all of its products to see where the algorithm gets invoked and to change those. A company spokesman said the review is expected to be completed next week.” http://bit.ly/18eMcUN

PRO EDUCATION IS NOW LIVE: The first of three new policy sections coming to POLITICO Pro this fall is officially live. Pro Education offers subscribers access to high-impact, high-velocity coverage of education, delivering exclusive real-time news and analysis and an early-bird edition of Morning Education. Interested? Email info@politicopro.com or call (703) 341-4600. Read more about the launch here: http://politi.co/1eL4Afu

SPEED READ

TWITTER IPO LIKELY TO COME BEFORE THANKSGIVING: And the firm is in talks to add new banks to its underwriting plans, Reuters reports: http://reut.rs/18eNEXd

ALL THINGS SPLITTING WITH DOW JONES: The two groups weren’t able to work out a deal — and Walt Mossberg will lose his column in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune reports: http://bit.ly/18eNMpU

HOUSE INTEL KNOCKS MEMBERS WHO MISSED BRIEFINGS: An aide some of the committee’s critics were the ones who didn’t attend NSA meetings, The Hill reports: http://bit.ly/18eNTSf

FRANCE WANTS REGULATION OF U.S. INTERNET FIRMS: The country wants to see EU-wide regulations and tax regulations, the Wall Street Journal reports: http://on.wsj.com/18eOzan

HACKERS EYE iPHONE’S FINGERPRINT SCANNER: A firm is offering more than $10,000 to the first person who can hack it, Reuters reports: http://reut.rs/18eOBPx

PINTEREST LAUNCHES NEW AD BIZ: The advertisements will be integrated with user content, the Financial Times reports: http://on.ft.com/18eOP9d

CALIF. CONSIDERING ONLINE ERASER BILL FOR KIDS: But there are there are practical concerns — and would it actually introduce new concerns? The NYT takes a look: http://nyti.ms/16sQs1f

Authors:

About The Author

Alex Byers is a technology reporter for POLITICO Pro. He was previously a senior Web producer at POLITICO, where he helped run POLITICO's Twitter and Facebook accounts. Before joining the Web team, he graduated from The George Washington University, where he served as the 2009-10 editor-in-chief of The GW Hatchet, the school's award-winning student newspaper.

Previously, he has interned at washingtonpost.com, Dateline NBC and General Mills Inc. He hails from Minneapolis and is an avid Twins fan, musician and golfer.